Gresham College Lectures

In the early modern period, it was common practice to praise the mathematical sciences, a typical example being Martinus Hortensius’ Inauguration Speech on the Dignity and the Usefulness of the Mathematical Sciences (Amsterdam 1634). This lecture explains how "mathematical sciences" were understood in the 17th century, before exploring the arguments which were used to advocate for the use of the mathematical sciences, using visual materials such as title engravings of 17th century publications. Can previous answers to the question “What do you need a mathematician for?” help us understand our need for mathematicians today?This lecture was recorded by Volker Remmert on the 7th of October 2026Volker Remmert has been trained as mathematician and historian. He teaches history of science and technology at the University of Wuppertal, Germany. His research interests are in the history of early modern science, with a focus on the mathematical sciences (Picturing the Scientific Revolution: Title Engravings in Early Mo­dern Scientific Publications, Philadelphia 2011), and in the history of mathematics in Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries (with Ute Schneider: Eine Disziplin und ihre Ver­le­ger – Disziplinenkultur und Publika­tionswesen der Mathematik in Deutschland, 1871-1949, Bielefeld 2010). He has recently co-edited volumes on the history early modern science (with Julia Ellinghaus: Manipulating the Sun: Picturing Astronomical Miracles from the Bible in the Early Modern Era, Leiden 2024, with Jeanne Peiffer: A Cultural History of Mathematics in the Early Modern Age, vol. 3 of the  Bloomsbury Cultural History of Mathematics, London 2024) and, together with Maria Remenyi, on the early workshops at the Mathematical Research Institute Oberwolfach (https://doi.org/10.14760/978-3-00-082798-3). The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/what-mathematicianGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show

This lecture was recorded by Professor Sir Jim Mallinson on 5th of October 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.Jim Mallinson is the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow at Balliol College. His research focuses on the history and current traditional practice of yoga and his primary methods are philology, ethnography and art history. Prof. Mallinson led the Haṭha Yoga Project (2015–2021), a six-person research project on the history of physical yoga funded by the European Research Council. The project’s core outputs are ten critical editions of Sanskrit texts on physical yoga and four monographs on its history and current practice. Together with Professor Jürgen Hanneder (University of Marburg), Prof. Mallinson led the Light on Hatha Yoga Project (2021–2024) which will result in a critical edition of the Haṭhapradīpikā. Prof. Mallinson’s publications include the following: The Khecarīvidyā of Ādinātha, a Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of an Early Text on Haṭhayoga (Routledge, 2007), a revision of his doctoral thesis, which was supervised by Professor Alexis Sanderson at the University of Oxford, where Prof. Mallinson also read Sanskrit as an undergraduate; Roots of Yoga (Penguin Classics, 2017, co-authored with Mark Singleton), The Amṛtasiddhi and Amṛtasiddhimūla: The Earliest Texts of the Haṭhayoga Tradition (École française d’Extreme- orient, Pondicherry, 2021) and The Dattātreyayogaśāstra (École française d’Extreme-orient, Pondicherry, 2024). Prof. Mallinson has spent many years living in India with traditional ascetics and practitioners of yoga, and at the 2013 Kumbh Mela was awarded the title of Mahant by the Rāmānandī Saṃpradāya. The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/yoga-purposeGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show

The unipolar world of American military dominance, which characterised the relatively stable 35-year post-Cold War period, is now well and truly over. This lecture reveals how nation states face a series of geostrategic shifts and challenges, combined with rapid technological change.The world has now entered a highly disruptive and volatile period which will be defined by complexity, competition and conflict. How nations credibly deter will not be straightforward, but failure to do so could prove to be catastrophic.This lecture was recorded by Martin Connell on the 27th of October 2026Sir Martin Connell joined the Royal Navy straight from school and went on to command at every rank from lieutenant through to vice admiral. Initially flying helicopters, he went on to be a captain of warships ranging from patrol vessels and frigates through to aircraft carriers, commanding military operations all around the world. Later in his career he worked in various shore-based roles including as a diplomat in Washington D.C. and numerous senior command and staff roles in the Ministry of Defence in London which included a period in 2025 as the Interim First Sea Lord and Chief of the Royal Navy. He has advised the highest levels of UK and allied governments and industry leadership on all aspects of deterrence, national security, major procurement programmes and the defence nuclear enterprise. Martin is now a strategic advisor specialising in defence and international security.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/rethinking-deterrenceGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show

The Irish language has been associated with politicisation and conflict, particularly in the context of contemporary Northern Ireland identity politics. However, debates around the language extend much further back in time and some key elements of the discourse may be traced to the sixteenth century in particular.This lecture looks at the portrayal of the Irish language by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and the motivations for some negative stereotypes which were to prove resilient and enduring in later centuries.This lecture was recorded by Mícheál Ó Mainnín on the 1st of October 2026Professor Mícheál Ó Mainnín works within the School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen's University Belfast.His principal research interests lie in the areas of linguistics (particularly onomastics and historical linguistics); Irish and Scottish Gaelic literary texts; language politics; Irish and Scottish identity and relations in the medieval and modern periods.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/shakespeare-irishGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show

This episode of the Gresham College Podcast features a conversation between two Gresham Professors: Melissa Lane, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric and Ronald Hutton, Gresham Professor of Divinity. Together they explore the gods of ancient Greece: where deities come from, why the same god could have several different parents, stories and personalities, and why the Greeks never expected their gods to be good. Ronald explains why Greeks addressed their deities as "sir and madam" rather than "Lord God", how blood sacrifice worked more like a community barbecue, and how ordinary people struck deals with the gods for help with toothache, childbirth or a safe voyage.  Melissa traces how philosophers from Xenophanes to Plato began to question the poets' badly behaved gods, and how religion collided with Athenian democracy, from the law courts to the trial of Socrates. The conversation then turns to the mystery religions, from the Eleusinian Mysteries to the women-only rites of Dionysus, the role of blindfolds and ordeal in initiation, and the gold leaves buried with initiates as calling cards for the underworld. It closes with the Greek view of the afterlife, and the story of the goddess Athena, evicted from the Parthenon, knocking at the philosopher Proclus's door.  Further Viewing: Watch Ronald Hutton's Gresham College lecture, Mithras: Master of Mystery: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/god-mithras  Watch Melissa Lane's Gresham College lecture, Cicero In and On Political Crises: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cicero  Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds.  To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/ Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport the show

In this lecture, Professor Marion Turner explores ‘ordinary women’ in English literature, arguing that Chaucer’s 14th-century Wife of Bath was the first such woman: a middle-aged, sexually active working woman who tells the outrageous story of her own life.Zadie Smith’s 21st century translation of her story demonstrates the ongoing relevance of thinking about the space we have for women’s voices in theatre, poetry and public life. This lecture discusses the historical context for the emergence of the voices of ‘ordinary women’ in literature and considers what has and hasn’t changed across time.This lecture was recorded by Marion Turner on the 30th of September 2026Marion Turner has published several award-winning books including Chaucer: A European Life  (Princeton, 2019) and The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton, 2023). She curated a major exhibition at the Bodleian Library, Chaucer Here and Now, in 2024. She is deeply committed to public engagement, working regularly with schools and with adult education as well as talking at literary festivals such as Hay on Wye, the Edinburgh festival, the Cheltenham festival, and the Oxford literary  festival, and on the radio, e.g. Start the Week, the Today programme, Women’s Hour, You’re Dead to  Me, Ian Hislop’s Oldest Jokes. She holds the senior chair in medieval literature at the University of  Oxford – the J.R.R. Tolkien Professorship of English Literature and Language. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-bathGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show

AI systems are increasingly positioned as supports for anxiety, loneliness, and distress. This lecture examines large language models trained to simulate therapeutic dialogue alongside biofeedback systems that modulate physiological states. We distinguish responsiveness from empathy, asking where AI may scaffold reflection and where automated comfort subtly displaces responsibility.This lecture was recorded by Professor Matt Jones on the 29th of September 2026 at Barnard’s Inna Hall, LondonMatt Jones is a computer scientist at Swansea University - and a Fellow of the British Computer Society - who works alongside colleagues from many other disciplines and directly with everyday folk across the world to explore the future of digital technologies. Over the last 30-plus years, this human-centred approach has led to novel approaches for, amongst other things,  mobile phone-based information searching and browsing, pedestrian navigation, voice assistants and deformable displays.  Much of his work has been driven by intense and sustained engagements with “low resource” communities from informal settlements in India, South Africa, and Kenya. Through their generous and gracious participation, these extra-ordinary users with the fresh and diverse perspectives have stimulated insights into the future of digital technologies for everyone, globally. In all this work, Matt works as part of a long-standing collaborative team with Jen Pearson, Simon Robinson and Thomas Reitmaier (from Swansea) and colleagues in India (including Dani Raju) and South Africa (including Minah Radebe). His work has been supported by the UK’s science funders (EPSRC and UKRI). Currently, this funding includes a Fellowship to explore the future of interactive AI and leadership roles in responsible AI and inclusive digital technologies. This funding has led to a series of impactful publications, talks and influences on people, policies, and practices. Matt has collaborated with private, public and third sector organisations, including Microsoft, the NHS, Google, IIT-B, the BBC and IBM. He is a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office’s Research Advisory Group and Welsh Government’s AI reviews.The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-therapistGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport the show

Where are the stories of great queer love in the Shoah? There are almost none. Anna Hájková explains why the history of same-sex desire in the Shoah, that is, queerness among Jews persecuted by the Nazis for their race, has been excluded and marginalised, and how its return to our understanding of the Holocaust can offer an inclusive and feminist history of this genocide.Based on original and extensive archival research, this lecture offers a concise insight into the queer history of the Holocaust.This lecture was recorded by Dr Anna Hájková on 28th of September 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.Dr Anna Hájková is Reader for modern European continental history at the University of Warwick, where she co-directs the Centre for Global Jewish Studies. Her first book, The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt, came out in 2020 with Oxford University Press. Her second book People Without History are Dust: Queer Desire in the Holocaust (University of Toronto Press, 2025) was awarded the National Jewish Book Award 2026. She is a pioneer of queer Holocaust history and her work has been awarded the 2020 Orfeo Iris Prize. The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/queer-shoahSupport the show

Carbon used to be something that was only mentioned in school chemistry classes, but now it seems to be everywhere: on the news, in political debate, in discussions on health, and as a framework for thinking about our civilisation’s future. But the carbon that’s the focus of most of that debate is what’s in the atmosphere, and that’s only about 2% of the accessible carbon on Earth.This lecture puts that 2% in context, showing how the whole carbon cycle works, how we’re affecting it, and looks at the proposed strategies for deliberately manipulating carbon reservoirs in the future.This lecture was recorded by Helen Czerski on the 24th of September 2026Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life. She is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. These bubbles change underwater sound and light, help transfer gases from ocean to atmosphere (helping the ocean breathe) and also eject ocean material into the air. She has spent months working on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and is an experienced field scientist. Helen has been a regular science presenter on the BBC for 15 years, covering the physics of the natural world in BBC2 landmark documentaries (including ‘Orbit’, ‘Operation iceberg’ and ‘Supersenses’), and the physics of everyday life in a range of BBC4 documentaries (including ‘From ice to fire: The incredible science of temperature’, ‘Sound waves: The symphony of physics’, and ‘Colour: The spectrum of science’, along  with many others). She currently co-hosts BBC Radio 4’s flagship climate and environment programme Rare Earth. Helen's first book Storm in a Teacup won the Italian Asimov Prize and the Louis J. Battan Author prize from the American Meteorological Society. Blue Machine won the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. She was awarded the Institute of Physics Gold Medal in 2018 for her work on physics communication, and an Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association in 2020. She was a Trustee of Royal Museums Greenwich from 2018-2026, and was one of the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lecturers, giving her Lecture on the topic of the ocean.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/carbonGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show

Our expanding Universe only makes sense if, early on, it expanded rapidly in a period of cosmic inflation. In this lecture, we consider the evidence for this apparently arbitrary idea, and asks whether we are on the brink of finding inflation’s signature in our observation.As the story moves from theorist's blackboards to desert observatories, and from the cosmos’s first moments to the far future, we question the nature of the Universe, its eventual fate and even the form of scientific enquiry itself.This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on the 23rd of September 2026Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’. Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cosmology-madGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show